Vanitas

Vanitas is a new iPhone app described as “a memento mori for your digital hands”, inviting you to contemplate on your own mortality.

Memento Moriis a Latin phrase which translates to “Remember that you must die”, and is the name of a genre of art throughout history, which is themed along the same premise : to remind people that they must die.

To lift you up when you are feeling down. And drag you down when you’re up too high.

Everything flows, nothing remains.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!

Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.

Sometimes, when you are depressed, it’s good to see something depressing.

A contemplation of the fleetingness of life. To help appreciate what you have.

A meditative experience. A spiritual toy. A reminder of the preciousness of life.

Referring to the still life paintings from the 16th and 17th century, Vanitas presents you with a gorgeously rendered 3D box filled with intriguing objects. Close the box and open it again to see new objects. You can move the objects by tilting your iPhone or pushing and dragging the objects with your fingers to create pleasant arrangements that inspire and enchant. Some objects decay. A flower blooms. A bubble pops. Life like an empty dream flits by…

The people behind Vanitas, Tale of Tales, also made one of my favorite games ever (if you can even think of it as a computer game): The Path. It’s hard to describe precisely… based on Little Red Riding Hood, decisions you make affect the outcome of the story, absolutely gorgeous and thought-provoking, very macabre, soundtrack by Jarboe!